Companies are suspected of misleading clients and exporting data overseas
When the state takes over the enrollment process for its residents under the Affordable Care Act on Nov. 1, two companies currently banned from enrolling clients through a federal database will be able to sell coverage to Georgians.
The companies, Benefitalign and Inshura, were banned from using healthcare.gov’s database after federal inquiries and a lawsuit produced evidence of what the lawsuit’s plaintiffs called fraud. The companies are under suspicion of misleading customers and improperly exporting data to other countries.
But the state insurance commissioner’s office has listed Benefitalign and Inshura among 18 companies and web brokers eligible to offer coverage on the state-run exchange website Georgiaaccess.gov.
The companies, in a court appeal, said the federal ban from healthcare.gov was based on “a litany of fears, suspicions and possibilities, the unsupported allegations of civil litigation.”
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees healthcare.gov, told the companies that while it investigates them, the “serious risk” to consumers was real enough that they would remain suspended until CMS completes its investigation.
A spokesperson for the insurance commissioner’s office said the banned companies were included on Georgiaaccess.gov because the state accepted every applicant that met its requirements. He pointed out that the companies had only been suspended by the feds, not permanently banned.
About 1.3 million Georgians currently are enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
State senator wants relatives of Apalachee suspect to testify to his panel
The chair of a state Senate study committee on gun safety wants the mother and grandparents of the 14-year-old charged in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School to testify.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, said the suspect’s relatives could help lawmakers understand what could have been done to prevent the shooting earlier this month that killed two students and two teachers. “We keep talking about mental health,” Jones said. “And there’s no better source than the parents and grandparents.”
Colt Gray, a student at the school, has been charged with four counts of felony murder. Charges against his father, Colin Gray, include second-degree murder. Warrants allege the elder Gray gave the teenager access to the semiautomatic gun used in the shooting “with knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others.”
The boy’s aunt has told reporters his mother, Marcee Gray, called the school on the morning of the shooting to warn a counselor about an “extreme emergency.” And the suspect’s grandfather, Charlie Polhamus, said his wife, Deborah, twice went to the school before the shooting seeking help for the teenager.
Jones said he hopes his panel, the Senate Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee, can produce bipartisan compromises beyond new incentives to encourage gun owners to buy safety mechanisms. That includes new efforts to give prosecutors more leeway to charge the parents of children charged in mass shootings, and more requirements for law enforcement to share details about threats with school administrators.
Jones said the mother and grandparents have not responded to his requests. A hearing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
Carr joins effort that could weaken Voting Rights Act
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined a coalition of Republican officials seeking limits on who can press for protections under one of the major legislative breakthroughs of the Civil Rights Movement.
For decades, groups and advocates have filed lawsuits to enforce Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting practices and procedures. In fact, of the 82 successful Section 2 cases over the past 40 years, only 15 were filed solely by a U.S. attorney general.
But in federal court cases in Georgia and elsewhere, Carr and his GOP colleagues argue that Congress never explicitly authorized private lawsuits under the provision and courts should no longer assume they’re allowed.
“It’s definitely one of the many indicators that we can’t assume that the existing law that protects the right to vote is going to get the kind of respect that either politicians or the courts have given it in the past,” said Kareem Crayton, an attorney and voting rights expert for the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice.
Kara Murray, a spokesperson for Carr, said the attorney general “is preserving the Voting Rights Act as written.”
“Any changes to the law should be made through Congress,” she said, “not the courts.”
The issue is now before the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Georgia’s challenge of a federal judge’s order requiring the General Assembly to redraw state legislative and congressional district maps, saying they illegally diluted Black voting strength in violation of Section 2.
In court documents, the Georgia plaintiffs and the U.S. Justice Department say it’s clear Congress intended to authorize private Section 2 lawsuits when it passed the law. And if Congress had a problem with such lawsuits, the plaintiffs say it could have prohibited them when it reauthorized the act on numerous occasions. They also argue federal courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court — repeatedly have held that private lawsuits are authorized under the provision.
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Republicans file suit to block new election certification rules
Democrats were the first to pursue court action to block new election certification rules that supporters of former President Donald Trump pushed through the State Election Board. Now some Republicans are challenging the regulations that critics say could be abused to dispute the results of the presidential election.
Former state Rep. Scot Turner and Chatham County election board member James Hall — along with an election advocacy organization that Turner heads called Eternal Vigilance Action — filed suit this past week to invalidate the rules ahead of November’s election.
The Republicans’ argument is that unelected appointees to the State Election Board exceeded their authority.
“Like fellow conservatives across the country, we oppose empowering the administrative state to act with the force of law,” Turner said. “We’re looking to affirm the separation of powers required by the state constitution. The legislative branch writes the rules; the executive carries them out as written.”
Three members who form a majority of the board, Trump supporters Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King, passed the rules in question.
One rule requires an undefined “reasonable inquiry” before county election boards certify results, which opponents fear partisan board members could use to reject an election’s outcome. Another rule calls for local election board members to review troves of documents before certifying results.
Defenders of the State Election Board, including state GOP Chair Josh McKoon, say the rules will help ensure votes are counted accurately.
The Democratic Party filed the first legal challenge of the new election rules in a lawsuit supported by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president. Their goal was to reinforce the requirement that county election boards certify elections.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
PAC aims to woo Asian American voters to support Harris
Former state Rep. Bee Nguyen, a onetime Democratic candidate for Georgia secretary of state, will help the AAPI Victory Fund reach out to Asian American voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whose mother emigrated from India, would seem like an appealing candidate to Asian American voters, but the Democrats will need to pay attention to them. The 2022 Asian American Voter Survey reported that 56% of Asian Americans reported either uncertain or no contact from Democrats. Republicans fared even worse at 66%.
Asian American and Pacific Islander voters have grown more politically active in Georgia. Their turnout in the state increased 84% between 2016 and 2020, a significant surge in participation in a year when Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.
“How our community votes — or whether we choose to show up at all — will be the difference between winning and losing in November,” said Nguyen, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees.
The PAC’s first canvass was set to begin Saturday, with volunteers going door to door and handing out flyers in six languages: English, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
U.S. judge rejects Catoosa GOP’s bid to block ‘traitor’ Republican candidates
U.S. District Judge Billy Ray this past week dismissed the Catoosa County GOP’s lawsuit aiming to disqualify four candidates for the county Board of Commissioners who are running as Republicans. It was the county party’s second such loss in a federal court this year.
The suit was part of a larger effort led by the conservative Georgia Republican Assembly to purge “traitors” — aka moderates and mainstream Republicans — from the party.
Last year, the Georgia Republican Assembly pushed unsuccessfully for policies that could have given the Georgia GOP the final say over who can run as Republicans for governor, legislative seats and other state offices.
The organization opposes Gov. Brian Kemp and other state GOP incumbents who rejected then-President Donald Trump’s demands to overturn his 2020 defeat. It also has targeted legislative leaders it sees as unworthy of the party’s brand.
Political expedience
- Big money: The presidential campaigns for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as well as supporting groups, spent more than $1 million on television ads in Georgia on Tuesday, the day the candidates debated. Democrats spent over $550,000, while Republicans laid out $460,000. So far this year, the campaigns and their allies have spent almost $56 million on TV ads that have run in Georgia.
- Volunteers: Kamala Harris’ campaign reports that more than 40,000 Georgians have signed up as volunteers since she emerged as the Democratic nominee. The campaign now has 200 full-time staffers working out of 26 offices in the state.
- Revenue rising: It’s only two months of data, but Georgia tax collections for the fiscal year that began in July continue to outperform last year, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office reported. August net tax collections totaled more than $2.3 billion, or 2.4% ahead of the same month in 2023. Year-to-date revenue for the fiscal year is up 2.5%.
- It’s starting: Georgia will start mailing ballots to overseas voters, including military personnel, this week.
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